[SOLVED] How long should it take for a hard drive to give out?

[llxy]

I have gone through 3 hard drives, the 3rd one marks today. First lasted 1 year, other 2 have ended up lasting 1-2 months. Is this a coincidence? The hard drives which ended up lasting 1-2 months were both a few years old, but never ever used.

So, a few questions:

Perhaps my components are damaging the hard drive in a way, such as my PSU (ThermalTake 80+ White PSU)? Would that be possible?

Is this a coincidence that I lost 3 hard drives so quickly, or is something else behind this?

The last 2 hard drives which broke down in under 2 months are making repeated rewind noises with intervals of 3-5 seconds, and refuse to boot past the Windows loading screen. How can I recover the data from all 3 drives, would it be possible?

One last question - I am getting a new NVMe soon. (first question) Could that be possible? Would it be at risk from being in this setup?

The last 2 drives both had a sudden rewind noise, then after reboot, were put into a SFC scan. After the scan, the drives were unbootable with the first one going to Recovery, and the second one unable to boot properly. What can I do here?

 

[jay32267]

"
Perhaps my components are damaging the hard drive in a way, such as my PSU (ThermalTake 80+ White PSU)? Would that be possible?
"

It's possible....but I would think not real likely as I would think you might see other components damaged due to this voltage as well as a good chance for crashes.



"Is this a coincidence that I lost 3 hard drives so quickly, or is something else behind this? "

It wouldn't surprise me that much.



"How can I recover the data from all 3 drives, would it be possible? "

I think most likely you would need to have this professionally done.


" I am getting a new NVMe soon. (first question) Could that be possible? Would it be at risk from being in this setup? "

I don't think so.

If you are concerned about the PSU voltages....check them.
You can generally check them in the BIOS.....with HWInfo....or with a multimeter.

 

[USAFRet]

I've had one die at 5 weeks old.
I have others that still work after 10-20 years.

 

[CountMike]

I have gone through 3 hard drives, the 3rd one marks today. First lasted 1 year, other 2 have ended up lasting 1-2 months. Is this a coincidence? The hard drives which ended up lasting 1-2 months were both a few years old, but never ever used.

So, a few questions:

Perhaps my components are damaging the hard drive in a way, such as my PSU (ThermalTake 80+ White PSU)? Would that be possible?

Is this a coincidence that I lost 3 hard drives so quickly, or is something else behind this?

The last 2 hard drives which broke down in under 2 months are making repeated rewind noises with intervals of 3-5 seconds, and refuse to boot past the Windows loading screen. How can I recover the data from all 3 drives, would it be possible?

One last question - I am getting a new NVMe soon. (first question) Could that be possible? Would it be at risk from being in this setup?

The last 2 drives both had a sudden rewind noise, then after reboot, were put into a SFC scan. After the scan, the drives were unbootable with the first one going to Recovery, and the second one unable to boot properly. What can I do here?

Real life expectancy of HDDs is from next second to forever. In another wors they can die at any time hence the need for backups.
Quality, make and model play large role but also many and often on-off cycles as well as usage, frequent defragmentation and testing can put a lot of strain on them and shorten their life. Other causes could be varying voltage or overvoltage and are also sensitive to movement while running, even a small bump can make heads crash on the surface. During the years I had them go bad in a year or so but still have some 10 or more years running like new.

 

[llxy]

"
Perhaps my components are damaging the hard drive in a way, such as my PSU (ThermalTake 80+ White PSU)? Would that be possible?
"

It's possible....but I would think not real likely as I would think you might see other components damaged due to this voltage as well as a good chance for crashes.



"Is this a coincidence that I lost 3 hard drives so quickly, or is something else behind this? "

It wouldn't surprise me that much.



"How can I recover the data from all 3 drives, would it be possible? "

I think most likely you would need to have this professionally done.


" I am getting a new NVMe soon. (first question) Could that be possible? Would it be at risk from being in this setup? "

I don't think so.

If you are concerned about the PSU voltages....check them.
You can generally check them in the BIOS.....with HWInfo....or with a multimeter.

Ah, thank you. So you believe the hard drives are just a "luck fest" when it comes to life and stability, and my NVMe shouldn't have any problems? Also to mention, I have never blue screened or crashed with this setup.

 

[llxy]

Real life expectancy of HDDs is from next second to forever. In another wors they can die at any time hence the need for backups.
Quality, make and model play large role but also many and often on-off cycles as well as usage, frequent defragmentation and testing can put a lot of strain on them and shorten their life. Other causes could be varying voltage or overvoltage and are also sensitive to movement while running, even a small bump can make heads crash on the surface. During the years I had them go bad in a year or so but still have some 10 or more years running like new.

Thank you, this helps. I think I'll be done with hard drives for good, 3 dying is enough to show a message that I shouldn't store my important data on it.

 

[CountMike]

Thank you, this helps. I think I'll be done with hard drives for good, 3 dying is enough to show a message that I shouldn't store my important data on it.

You can also run tests on them, SMART values may give you a clue why.

 

[llxy]

You can also run tests on them, SMART values may give you a clue why.

How can I run tests on them if they cant boot? Also, what would happen if I were to boot off my NVMe, but also have the HDD plugged in? Would it still be risky for it to be powered on, and I should bring it to a professional drive repair service? Or would I be safe just copying the files over?

 

[Grobe]

Is this internal hdd's? What physical environment are the hdd located in? Ar the hdd's exposed to frequent relocation s or vibrations?

 

[llxy]

Is this internal hdd's? What physical environment are the hdd located in? Ar the hdd's exposed to frequent relocation s or vibrations?

My PC does not move, and the only vibrations present are the ones coming from my HDD. On all 3 HDD setups, they were all alone. The HDD's are properly mounted in my drive bay under my PSU shroud.

 

[CountMike]

How can I run tests on them if they cant boot? Also, what would happen if I were to boot off my NVMe, but also have the HDD plugged in? Would it still be risky for it to be powered on, and I should bring it to a professional drive repair service? Or would I be safe just copying the files over?

How can I run tests on them if they cant boot? Also, what would happen if I were to boot off my NVMe, but also have the HDD plugged in? Would it still be risky for it to be powered on, and I should bring it to a professional drive repair service? Or would I be safe just copying the files over?

Yu can boot from another drive, M.2 if you have one. They do not have same power connection so PSU can't make them go bad or damage them, they are not liability for the rest of drives, only for data on them. SSDs also have no moving parts so can't be damaged physically.

 

[llxy]

Yu can boot from another drive, M.2 if you have one. They do not have same power connection so PSU can't make them go bad or damage them, they are not liability for the rest of drives, only for data on them. SSDs also have no moving parts so can't be damaged physically.

Okay, I will attempt this when I receive my SSD. I was worried they could cause damage to the other drives, but good thing they can not.

 

[USAFRet]

So you believe the hard drives are just a "luck fest" when it comes to life and stability

Physical drive fails are down in the 1% range, at most.
I've you've had that many die so early...I suspect something else is going on.

 

[King_V]

I have gone through 3 hard drives, the 3rd one marks today. First lasted 1 year, other 2 have ended up lasting 1-2 months. Is this a coincidence? The hard drives which ended up lasting 1-2 months were both a few years old, but never ever used.

To me, that seems kind of unusual. I've got hard drives around 20 years old that still work. Yet, I've had a drive fail at under 3 years old.

Is this in a laptop or desktop? Is the computer in question moved around a lot, or bumped hard while powered on? I do know that it's fairly easy to kill a drive by impact while it's running.

 

[llxy]

To me, that seems kind of unusual. I've got hard drives around 20 years old that still work. Yet, I've had a drive fail at under 3 years old.

Is this in a laptop or desktop? Is the computer in question moved around a lot, or bumped hard while powered on? I do know that it's fairly easy to kill a drive by impact while it's running.

If it helps, the drives which lasted 1-2 months were both from the 2013 era. They are in a desktop environment, and are never moved.

 

[USAFRet]

If it helps, the drives which lasted 1-2 months were both from the 2013 era. They are in a desktop environment, and are never moved.

Might have just been a bad batch, at that particular time.
It happens.

Seagate had a thing with their 3TB drives for a little while. Much higher fail rate than typical.
Only that one particular model, and was fixed in later batches.

 

[ChrisAB]

How long is a piece of string?? I still have a 6.4GB IDE HD in a windows 98SE PC AMD Duron going strong...

But then i have a Western Digital Red 3TB from a NAS thats 3 years old thats dead.

 

[CountMike]

Believe it or not, old HDD drives lasted longer than more modern ones. Mechanical parts vere more robust and data density was much lower so small misalignment of heads and mechanics wouldn't matter. Even older drives like MFM/BT before IDE heads were moved by a stepper motor.

 

[llxy]

Believe it or not, old HDD drives lasted longer than more modern ones. Mechanical parts vere more robust and data density was much lower so small misalignment of heads and mechanics wouldn't matter. Even older drives like MFM/BT before IDE heads were moved by a stepper motor.

Update!
I have received the NVMe, and it has been working flawlessly over the past 24 hours. I had 1 small issue, my old buggy iPhone upon turning on, suddenly "stunned" my USB ports. As soon as it turned on, for a few seconds all my USB ports shut off, then turned on. I do believe this was just a problem with the iPhone considering it tends to randomly die easily. Thanks!